Ott Returns To Berkeley Rep With CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 2/27

In her 13 years as artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sharon Ott led the company to new artistic heights, national prestige, and a well-deserved Tony Award. Now, after a 12-year absence, she returns with a gripping production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic Crime and Punishment. The scene of this Crime is Berkeley Rep's intimate Thrust Stage, where Ott earned her reputation as a dazzling director. The show begins previews on February 27, opens March 4, and closes March 29. Its executive producers are John and Helen Meyer and Richard H. Rubin and H. Marcia Smolens, with production sponsorship from the Bernard Osher Foundation. BART and Wells Fargo are the season sponsors for Berkeley Rep's 41st year of fearless theatre.

"I am thrilled to return to Berkeley Rep after 12 years," Ott remarks, "and particularly pleased to direct on the Thrust Stage, which is without a doubt one of my favorite theatres in the country. I never do anything halfway - so this season I'll be staging two shows at Berkeley Rep.

In addition to Crime and Punishment, I'll be back in May with the premiere production of Amy Freed's farce, You, Nero. I love it that these plays have such different tones and styles, and look forward to sharing that contrast with Bay Area audiences. I'm also enjoying this opportunity to reconnect with some of my favorite local collaborators, including Delia McDougall and Lydia Tanji for this play and Charles Dean and Danny Scheie for Nero."

"It's truly an honor and a pleasure for me to welcome Sharon back to our stage," says the Theatre's current artist director, Tony Taccone. "Many of our subscribers have been with us since her days at the Theatre, and I know they're eager to see her work again. This script is an elegant and compelling distillation of a complex book, and the perfect challenge for her skills."

Before Law & Order, there was Crime and Punishment. As a police inspector interrogates a man about murder, we journey through the mind of a criminal. What did he do? Why did he do it?

And what would you be capable of in certain circumstances? Performed with only three actors, this chamber piece compresses all the tension and pathos of the novel into a powerful evening of theatre.

The New York Times calls it "remarkably absorbing... Crime and Punishment, in a feat that rivals the construction of the Hoover Dam, has been distilled into a taut 90-minute play by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus [that] will banish any bad memories you might have of trying to struggle through Dostoevsky's book."

The play's premiere earned Chicago's prestigious
Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Adaptation and was acclaimed by the Chicago Sun-Times as "stunningly lean, taut, and emotionally searing." Dive into the greatest crime story ever written, a tale of murder and redemption that plumbs the depths of the human soul - w

Ott's Crime is also aided and abetted by three accomplished actors. J.R. Horne (Porfiry and others) performed in the world premiere of Hydriotaphia at Berkeley Rep. His Broadway credits include Abe Lincoln in Illinois, The Crucible, Inherit the Wind, and The Show-Off, and his off- Broadway credits include Almost an Evening, Anadarko, Hughie, The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, The Night Hank Williams Died, Our Leading Lady, and Rhinoceros. On screen, he has been seen in two films by the Coen Brothers: Burn After Reading and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Berkeley Rep audiences will recall Delia MacDougall (Sonia and others) from The Beaux' Stratagem, Hydriotaphia, Mad Forest, Pentecost, The Rivals, and Serious Money.four clever designers to help her plan the perfect Crime. Christopher Barreca
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Individual tickets for Crime and Punishment start at only $27, thanks to exciting new prices that let more people experience the best theatre in the Bay Area. Additional savings are available for groups, seniors, students, and anyone under 30 years of age - meaning discounted seats can be obtained for as little as $13.50. This change makes Berkeley Rep more affordable to people in the community who are just starting school, starting careers, and starting families - because lower prices are now available for every performance. Save even more by purchasing a ticket package that also includes two or more comedies in Berkeley Rep's season.

You can't escape Crime and Punishment. Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage is located at 2025
Addison Street, near bus lines, bike routes, and parking lots - and only half a block from BART

For tickets or information, call 510.647.2949 or toll-free at 888-4-BRT-Tix - or simply click berkeleyrep.org